PicksInSix Review: DEATHTRAP - Dunes Summer Theatre
Dunes Lands with Comically Macabre ‘DEATHTRAP’
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy
The Dunes Summer Theatre, northwest Indiana’s longest-running summer theater program, kicked off the 75th season this weekend in high style with Ira Levin’s “DEATHTRAP” directed by Michael Lasswell and starring Kevin Lee Giese as Sidney Bruhl, the washed-up playwright who will do anything to get back to Broadway with a hit.
The 1978 play ran for four years on Broadway and still stands as the longest running comedy-thriller in Broadway history. At the Dunes, you can certainly see why the show has made such a mark over the years. It is a fast-paced series of surprising plot-twists and chilling turns that take place a few hours north of Manhattan in the study of the Bruhl’s carriage house in Westport, Connecticut that has been meticulously designed by Lasswell including an impressive array of weapons and a fair amount of surprises all its own. It is here that Bruhl and his wife Myra (Jann Iaco) discuss the play that Bruhl’s former student Clifford Anderson (Michael Bond) has sent to him for review and comment. That all leads to Anderson coming later in the evening and the wrapping—and unravelling—of the story.
Early on, Helga ten Dorp (Janet Davies), the Bruhls’ eccentric Dutch neighbor, arrives and quickly reveals her psychic abilities, sensing the present and hinting at what lies ahead. From there, the play within the play seems to unfold in a familiar way—or does it?
At the center of the story is Giese’s Bruhl who is consumed by the brilliant work that Bond’s Anderson has created, urging him to join forces to insure a successful Broadway production. Levin uses Bruhl’s desperation and excessive actions as a mirror mixed with satire of the toxic, competitive atmosphere at the time where wealth and greed challenged creativity at every level. Bond is terrific in the role of the talented newcomer, affable and engaging at the outset, a perfect counter to the brooding and manipulative Griese whose tightly wound Bruhl threatens to explode at any minute.
The play hinges on Iaco’s Myra and the Bruhl’s attorney, Porter Milgrim played by Steven Kozelka, but the sparkling performance of the night goes to the effervescent Davies who plays Helga with unbridled passion and a comic sheen that is truly captivating.
Lasswell’s superb set design is enhanced by Arturo Pozos’s unmatched lighting, a brilliant soundscape by Jake Tillman and a warehouse of interesting properties by Sarah Brown that make this show another stunning visual feast for the Dunes Summer Theatre.
PHOTO|Tony V. Martin
Dunes Summer Theatre
presents
DEATHTRAP
288 Shady Oak Dr
Michigan City, IN
through June 14, 2026
WEBSITE
BOX OFFICE
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